²⁶ The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron again, saying, ²⁷ “How long shall I put up with this evil congregation who are ^(A)grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel which they are ^[a]voicing against Me. ²⁸ Say to them, ‘^(B)As I live,’ declares the Lord, ‘just as ^(C)you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you; ^29 (D)your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness, all ^(E)your ^[b]numbered men according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me. ³⁰ By no means will you come into the land where I ^[c]swore to settle you, ^(F)except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. ^31 (G)Your children, however, whom you said would become plunder—I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected. ^32 (H)But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness. ³³ Also, your sons will be shepherds in the wilderness for ^(I)forty years, and they will ^[d]suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your bodies perish in the wilderness. ³⁴ In accordance with the ^(J)number of days that you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall suffer the punishment for your ^[e]guilt a year, that is, forty years, and you will know My opposition. ^35 (K)I, the Lord, have spoken, I certainly will do this to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. They shall be worn out in this wilderness, and there they shall die.’”

⁵ Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased; for their dead bodies were ^(A)spread out in the wilderness.